DDE songwriter Frode Viken believes that there has been a critical allergy towards DDE in the Norwegian media. Music critic Audun Vinger in Dagens Nærligsliv does not agree. Here is the story of how "Det går likar no" was written.
/ 07/09/2015 / Janne Sievers
Text: Kai Lofthus/Willy Martinsen
Photo above: Marthe A Vannebo
– Æ sett her på søl, sings DDE's Bjarne Brøndbo in one of Norway's ultimate "day after tomorrow songs", Det går likar no. The lyrics also reveal where the band's guitarist and songwriter Frode Viken began writing the song.
It was in Bodø that Frode Viken was inspired to write the lyrics and melody for "Det går likar no", thanks in large part to Kari Thorvik from the record label Norske Gram. These two, and the rest of DDE, were on a job assignment at the city's cultural center at a time when the Trondheim-based record company had finally started selling large quantities of records with the band from Namsos.
So far, DDE had released two Åge Aleksandersen-produced albums: “Rai-Rai”, released on Tylden & Co in 1993, and “Rai 2” on Norske Gram in 1994, as well as the Svein Gundersen-produced concert album “Det é DDE”, also on Norske Gram, which sold more than 100,000 copies after its release in 1995.
There in Bodø, Kari Thorvik told Viken one evening that they had to have more “rai rai” on the next album. That was all it took to inspire Viken, who went to the toilet for fifteen minutes and wrote down the lyrics on a piece of toilet paper. He went back to Thorvik, leaned forward and said: “You know what? The new hit is called Det går likar no”.
– The song came like a bang, summarizes Viken, who has been a TONO member since 1989 and has more than 270 titles registered in TONO's databases.
Det går likar no became the opening track, and the big hit, on the Svein Gundersen-produced album of the same name, which was released in 1996, and which ended up selling no less than a very respectable 270,000 copies.
How is Frode Viken able to move between different universes, such as composing a party song about "the day after" and sensitive tunes like "Vinsjan på kaia", with lyrics by Idar Lind? To this, Viken replies that he thinks of his brain as a computer, where lots of impressions are fed in, which later come out in a very concentrated period together with the rest of the band:
– I can play with chords on the piano and guitar, but I'm terrified of touching the instruments too much before we're in the studio. If a wrong chord comes up, it's ruined the subconscious. I'm constantly fighting with the superconscious. It's important not to disrupt the way I think, but to let the process go, and press the button a few months before we go into the studio.
Kari Thorvik, who with her "more rai rai" call inspired Viken to write Det går likar no, elaborates:
– When Frode writes what Bjarne is going to sing, he creates a gallery of people, a universe of people. Rai-Rai and Det går likar no are about the same guy. Vinsjan på kaia is about another person in the gallery. That's why he can write so many different types of songs. When he creates that universe, it becomes more personal and not just words.
After 16 DDE albums, Frode Viken is still motivated to write songs and play with DDE. A new album may be in the works during 2016, but it will probably only be a digital release. He no longer sees much value in printing it on CD. The concerts obviously compensate for that:
– There are many young people who weren't even born when Det går likar no came out, and who learn our repertoire, and sometimes sing higher than us. There has been a violent allergy to us in critics-Norway. But we can do this until we are 100, as long as someone can carry us up on stage, he says.
Music critic for Dagens Næringsliv, Audun Vinger, believes Viken is exaggerating when he claims that critics have had an “allergy” to DDE.
– No, that's not true. When "Det går likar no" came out in the mid-90s, harsh Norwegian music critics were probably more concerned with showing what kind of taste they had privately, but now music is judged more based on what it is. There has been more general respect for good songwriting, and even though DDE is on the sidelines of the usual "critic music", people see the quality in songs that work, and become part of the Norwegian. I would say that DDE has a fairly high standing now, as a popular cultural phenomenon, but "Det går likar no" is not their best song. The more sensitive "E6" and "Vinsjan på kaia" are much better.
– Do you like “It’s going well now” yourself?
– I like their ballads. They have a pathos about them that borders on silly, but which still becomes a kind of Norwegian version of Bruce Springsteen and those. DDE takes parts of the American rock tradition, and makes it something very Norwegian, or at least central Norwegian. And by the way, DDE's party songs are like Joni Mitchell compared to the party songs that are on the charts today.
The Project and Credits
Composer and lyricist: Frode Viken
Organizers: Bjarne Brøndbo, Eskil Brøndbo, Eivind Berre, Terje Tranaas and Bård Jørgen Iversen.
Music publisher: Warner/Chappell Music Norway